Content Standard

Enduring Understanding

Essential Questions

Essential Questions

1. Students apply a range of skills and strategies to construct meaning as they comprehend, interpret, analyze and respond.

We invest ourselves in the communication process when understanding becomes reciprocal.

Ø      What is meaning?

Ø      What is understanding?

Ø      What is communication?

Ø      What is my role in communication?

Ø      How do I know I understand something?

Ø      What do I do if I don’t understand?

Ø      What personal experiences do I bring to understanding?

Ø      How do communication strategies differ? Why?

Ø      Why do people interpret and respond to communication differently?

Ø      Are my ideas and understandings valid? How do I know when mine are different? 

Ø      How do we know which interpretation is “right”? How do I support my ideas?

2. Students set goals, monitor, evaluate, and reflect on their growth in communication arts.

As a lifelong process, communication requires reflective thinking and interaction.

Ø      How do I know what I know?

Ø      How do I know when I know?

Ø      What do I do when I don’t know?

Ø      What are my strengths? What are my weaknesses? Why?

Ø      What are my goals?

Ø      How can improving my communication skills improve my life?

Ø      How do we know when we have communicated?

Ø      What are some strategies to reach my goals?

Ø      How can I monitor my progress? How can I improve?

Ø      What is most important for me to learn?

Ø      How can I develop my own voice?

Ø      How can I achieve independence in my learning?

3. Students select, interpret and respond to print and non- print material for a variety of purposes and audiences.

Communication changes according to audience and purpose.

Ø      How do I select material to meet the purpose of my communication?

Ø      How do I support my interpretations? Why do I need to?

Ø      Why does the method and structure I choose affect my communication?

Ø      How does my personal experience impact what I view, read, or hear?

Ø      How does my attitude toward textual and non-textual impact myself and others?

4. Students use the inquiry process and problem solving to synthesize information from a variety of sources and communicate their findings.

Curiosity guides learners through the investigation process and sparks an interest in problem solving.

Ø      What are the various ways I can present the information I’ve learned?

Ø      Who will be my audience, and how will that impact my presentation?

Ø      Investigate what?

Ø      What sources are available?

Ø      What is the inquiry process?

Ø      How do I know my information is valid?

Ø      How do I organize the information?

Ø      What questions do I need to ask in order to narrow my topic?

Ø      How can my curiosity drive discovery? Is curiosity part of the learning process? Why is curiosity important? Why are people curious?

Ø      What is valid?

Ø      Once I have the information, what do I do with it?

Ø       How can I use my finding to draw conclusions and predict outcomes?

Ø      What questions do I need to ask?

Ø      Which sources are appropriate for my subject?

5.  Students use text to enrich personal experience and to connect to the broader world of ideas, concepts, and issues.

Students use language to enrich personal experience and to connect to the broader world of ideas

Ø      How do I use communication to connect to the broader world of ideas, concepts, and issues?

Ø      How does language help us recognize and develop empathy?

Ø      Why do we need to communicate?

Ø      What is communication?

Ø      How does communication affect my personal experiences and relationships? Why?

Ø      How does culture affect communication?

Ø      How can communication be

Ø      affected by personal, cultural, and social assumptions?